Legislature

FASTER repeal unlikely to see ignition despite campaign vows

Colorado Republicans vowed on the campaign trail to repeal vehicle-registration fees hiked by Democrats in 2009.

Even with the GOP back in charge of the state House after six years out of power, the likelihood of House Republicans pressing hard to do that may be low, said incoming Speaker Frank McNulty.

Democrats still control the state Senate, and the new governor, John Hickenlooper, is a Democrat, McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, pointed out.

"As far as straight-out repeals of what the Democrats have done, unless we get our friends in the Senate and the governor to sign off on it," it won't happen, he said.

While that may disappoint Republicans who want to see the GOP-controlled House try anyway, McNulty said House Republicans have to operate in a bipartisan fashion, not score political points.

"We're in the majority now. We have an obligation to govern. Coloradans expect us to do that. Our goal should be to find that common ground," McNulty said. "Lobbing grenades from one side of the aisle to the other isn't the best way to start."

Those statements are a far cry from the ones Republicans made on the campaign trail when they called for repealing the measure that hiked vehicle-registration fees to fund road and bridge repairs, legislation dubbed FASTER.

"FASTER must be repealed and we must work to implement a level of funding that recognizes how important our roads and bridges are to Colorado," McNulty said in response to questions from The Denver Post's Voter Guide earlier this year.

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Rep.-elect Kathleen Conti, R-Littleton, based much of her campaign against incumbent Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, on the fact that he was the lead sponsor of the FASTER bill. She attacked him in public forums over the bill and said it should be repealed.

Conti did not return calls seeking comment.

Even if they could, would they?

Rice, though, said he thought it was unlikely Republicans would actually repeal FASTER even if they could. Still, he expected some symbolic attempts.

"After so much posturing, I can't believe they wouldn't at least carry through on the theater," he said.

If there are political reasons for not taking on FASTER, there are also practical ones.

The measure raised registration fees by about $40 a year for a typical vehicle, generating an estimated $250 million a year for road and bridge repairs. Based on the revenue stream, the state this week just issued $300 million in bonds to repair 40 bridges.

The plan is to issue another $400 million or so to repair a total of 128 crumbling bridges by 2017.

Some Republicans were surprised to learn of the bond issuance and of warnings from budget analysts that completely repealing FASTER would mean coming up with the money to pay off the bonds somewhere else.

A portion of the increased registration fees is devoted strictly to bridge improvements and is the revenue stream dedicated to paying off the bonds.

Repeal could dent state's bond rating

"If they just took that (bridge fee) off willy-nilly, that could affect the state's bond rating," said Rep. Glenn Vaad, R-Mead, the incoming chairman of the House Transportation Committee. "It kind of took me back a minute and made me think, 'Wait a minute. We better be careful here.' "

And repealing the vehicle-registration fees without finding some alternate revenue source is a non-starter with the Colorado Contractors Association, which represents the road-building industry.

"We did get a commitment from the current leadership in both the House and Senate not to repeal FASTER without identifying and replacing it with alternate revenue," said Tony Milo, executive director of the contractors association.

And the contractors association is no stranger to House Republicans. McNulty last week hired Bill Skewes, who had been a lobbyist for the contractors association, as the House GOP's new chief of staff.

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